Multi Sensory Learning has been a buzz word in education for decades now. It sounds very serious but few people know about the benefits it can offer.
What is Multi Sensory Learning?
Multi Sensory Learning is very simply learning through all the 5 senses. If you teach any one a concept through sound, sight, feel, smell and taste the chances of them ever forgetting it are very small. For example lets take something boring like fractions.
Sound: First explain what half and a quarter is to your child.
Sight: Take an apple and cut it into half and a quarter
Feel: Allow your child to cut up other pieces of fruit into fractions.
Smell: Take three glasses of water. Using vanilla essence measure out three servings into the three glasses using fractions. How different do they smell?
Taste: Taste the difference between the three glasses.
Do you have to use all the senses all the time?
No, some senses are harder to engage than others. Try to engage as many senses as is natural for the topic you are working on.
Isn’t Multi Sensory Learning used mainly for children with learning challenges?
Multi Sensory Learning has been very successful in teaching children with learning challenges. However it’s uses are much wider than that, it is a great tool for teaching any one any thing – I like to use it to teach adults concepts too. One thing it does is get you to think much more creatively about the topic you are explaining. Taking any thing out of a text book and into 5D is much more engaging and in the long run easier for you. A little more effort at the front end equals less time going over topics and re explaining old topics when you are trying to build on them.
Next time you are looking to explain a concept, try to think in 5D (using your 5 senses!) For information on a Multi Sensory literacy program see the rest of my website.